Per Joe Vardon of The Athletic, "one of the big-market teams that fail to land a big fish are going to make an offer" to Cleveland for Kevin Love.

Love signed a four-year, $120 million contract extension with the Cavs last year. He will make $28.9 million in 2019-20, then $31.3 million in the middle two years of the deal, and $28.9 million in the final year of the deal.

However, Love played only 22 games last season because of a toe injury and has missed at least 20 games in each of the past three seasons. Nonetheless, contenders will certainly come knocking if they feel Love can push them over the top in a wide-open league.

Sounds like they plan on trading him !

Sources: Cavaliers, Smith push back guarantee
5:31 PM ET
Brian Windhorst
ESPN Senior Writer


The Cleveland Cavaliers have come to an agreement with J.R. Smith to push back the guarantee date of his contract from Sunday night until July 15 to allow the team more time to trade him, sources told ESPN.com.

Only $3.9 million of Smith's $15.6 million salary was guaranteed, making him an option for teams looking to clear salary room. In consideration of Smith pushing the date back, his guarantee increased to $4.4 million, sources said.



As part of the deal, the date can be pushed again to Aug. 1 and his guarantee would increase to $5.2 million. Smith left the Cavs last November after playing just 11 games and the Cavs have been trying to trade him ever since.

Smith is expected to eventually be waived by the Cavs or another team he is traded to and is expected to be a free agent target of the Los Angeles Lakers, sources said.

The Athletic first reported the sides agreed to extend the deadline.

They've been trying to forever. They're doing this hoping free agency happenings open up the need for his contract for a team.

Really ? Kind of changes the bullshit about just waiving his contract.

Joe Vardon of The Athletic relays that J.R. Smith has agreed to push the guarantee date on his contract to August 1, allowing the Cavaliers to have more time to trade him.
Originally only $3.8 million of the $15.7 million owed to Smith is guaranteed, but ESPN's Brian Windhorst details that the guarantee has been upped to $4.4 million as a part of this agreement. Reports have indicated that Smith will likely end up with the Lakers, but they have larger fish to fry at the moment. Smith's eventual trade is inevitable, there are just multiple dominoes that need to fall before it comes to fruition.

SOURCE: Joe Vardon on Twitter
Jun 29, 2019, 5:07 PM ET

Rusty, you been drinking?

Jason Lloyd said that the Cavs had been trying to trade JR Smith's contract and really hoped to on draft night, but every team was insisting on giving them a bad contract back. And they didn't want to take on the money. They do not want to go over the tax threshold this year because it will clean their slate.

You say he is full of crap.

Well they are still trying to trade his contract. Well duh, we've all known that for months!!

Now they get this extension, hoping free agency might open up a possibility for a trade without taking on bad money. So what, totally good move. But changes nothing.

If they take on a bad contract in a trade and go over the threshold then come in here beating up Lloyd, but till then I really don't know what you're rambling on about.

HB, please stop acting like you understand what is going on with JR Smith.

The value in JR Smith's contract was always based on the Cavs taking back contracts (bad) equal to JR Smith so the teams could waive his non guaranteed contract. All the Cavs have been doing is trying to limit how bad.

You are the one that does not understand the value in JR Smith's contract.

One more thing. There are times that the media is manipulated by or becomes the teams mouthpiece. Lloyd was doing just that.

The Cavs have many ways to get under the luxury tax during the season if they want to.

Marc Stein
✔
@TheSteinLine


It's June 30! Deals coming later today on Day 1 of free agency:

*Kyrie Irving & Nets (4/$141M)

*Kemba Walker to Celtics (4/$141M)

*Klay Thompson & Warriors (5/$190M)

*Kristaps Porzingis & Mavs (5/$158M)

*Nikola Vucevic & Magic (4/$100M)

*Harrison Barnes & Kings (4/$88M)


12:01 AM - Jun 30, 2019

Tim Reynolds
✔
@ByTimReynolds


Not that this is a surprise - or means anything - but Jimmy Butler is expected to tell Miami officials tonight that he wishes to play for the Heat, per source.

2,243
2:07 PM - Jun 30, 2019

Sources: Nets to sign Durant, Kyrie and DeAndre
play
5:39 PM ET

Adrian Wojnarowski

Free-agent All-NBA star Kevin Durant plans to sign a four-year, $164 million contract to play for the Brooklyn Nets, league sources told ESPN.

Durant will join free agents Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan, who also plan to sign with the franchise, league sources said.



It is a remarkable chain of events for a franchise that general manager Sean Marks and coach Kenny Atkinson found in disrepair less than four years ago.

Kevin Durant
Durant declined his $31.5 million player option in June, officially setting him up for unrestricted free agency.

He was eligible to remain with the Warriors on a five-year, $221 million deal, or sign a four-year, $164 million deal with another team.

Leading up to free agency, Durant and business partner Rich Kleiman had been in New York, where they mulled the star forward's free-agency options. Durant had been considering a number of scenarios, including a return to Golden State, while New York and the LA Clippers also were believed to be considerations beyond Brooklyn, sources had told ESPN.

Whichever team won the Durant sweepstakes knew it likely would be without his services for the entire 2019-20 season. Durant ruptured his right Achilles in the second quarter of Game 5 of the NBA Finals, a devastating injury that changed the entire dynamic of the NBA offseason. He underwent surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York on June 12.

The Achilles tear, suffered as he tried to drive by Raptors big man Serge Ibaka in the second quarter of Game 5 in Toronto, came after Durant had missed a month-plus of the playoffs with a right calf injury suffered May 8 against the Houston Rockets in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals. The Raptors game had marked his return to the court, but it proved short-lived, and Toronto won the Finals in Game 6 at Oracle Arena.

Durant, who turns 31 in September, finished the postseason averaging 32.3 points per game on 51% shooting from the field, 44% shooting from 3-point range and 90% shooting from the free throw line. He's the first player in NBA history to average 30 points per game on 50-40-90 shooting in a single postseason (minimum five games).

The second overall pick in the 2007 draft, Durant spent his first nine NBA seasons with Seattle/Oklahoma City, then signed with the Warriors in 2016 to give them a superteam that included fellow All-Stars Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.

Durant helped lead Golden State to NBA titles in 2017 and '18, winning Finals MVP both times. He's a 10-time All-Star (and was named All-Star Game MVP in 2012 and '19) and six-time first-team All-NBA honoree, and also won Rookie of the Year in 2007-08 and league MVP in 2013-14. He has led the NBA in scoring four times, and his current 27 PPG average ranks sixth all time.

Durant is one of five players to win at least one Rookie of the Year, MVP, Finals MVP, All-Star Game MVP and scoring title, joining LeBron James, Shaquille O'Neal, Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain.

Kyrie Irving
A year ago, it seemed like Irving would be in Boston for the long term.

In a season-ticket holder meeting in October, he declared: "If you'll have me, I'll re-sign." Around the same time, he made a commercial with his father, Drederick, inside an empty TD Garden, and spoke of ensuring no one else ever would wear No. 11 for the Celtics.

C's You Later

Kyrie Irving made Second Team All-NBA last season. He's just the fourth Celtics player to not return to the team the season after earning All-NBA honors. A look at the others:

SEASON PLAYER REASON
2016-17 Isaiah Thomas Traded to CLE
1962-63 Bob Cousy Retired
1947-48 Ed Sadowski Traded to GSW
-- Elias Sports Bureau

After a disappointing season for the Celtics, though, things are much different now. Individually, Irving had one of his best seasons of his career, and was a deserving second-team All-NBA selection. Boston, however, was not nearly as good as the lofty preseason expectations for the franchise, and flamed out in five games in the second round against the Milwaukee Bucks -- with Irving going a combined 21-for-65 in the final three games of that series (all losses).

Along the way, he got into repeated public back-and-forths with the team's younger players, and also announced after a win over the Toronto Raptors in January that he'd made up with James -- a relationship that wasn't in a good place when Irving requested a trade away from the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2017. And his free agency officially became a hot-button topic on Feb. 1 at Madison Square Garden, when he announced, "Ask me July 1," when asked whether he'd stay in Boston, later adding that, "I don't owe anybody s---."

In 67 games last season for Boston, Irving, 27, averaged 23.8 points, along with career highs of 5.0 rebounds and 6.9 assists.

DeAndre Jordan

After 10 seasons with the Clippers, Jordan signed a one-year, $22.9 million deal with the Mavericks last offseason. The center made 50 starts for Dallas, averaging 11.0 points and 13.7 rebounds before being dealt to the Knicks in late January as part of the Kristaps Porzingis blockbuster. 

New York convinced Jordan not to seek a buyout after the trade, hoping he could mentor some of the team's younger big men, notably Mitchell Robinson. Jordan saw his playing time dwindle as the Knicks went with younger lineups, and he was a DNP-coach's decision in the team's final seven games. 


Jordan, who turns 31 on July 21, acknowledged it was "strange" not to be a regular but called the decision mutual. And while New York endured another playoff-less season, going a league-worst 17-65, the unrestricted free agent said he liked the franchise's direction. 

"I love it here," Jordan told the New York Post late in the season. "I love what [first-year coach David Fizdale] is doing here. Obviously there's a lot of things that these guys want to do to get better, to better the organization. We'll see what happens."

An 11-year veteran and three-time All-NBA player, Jordan holds career averages of 9.6 points, 10.9 rebounds and 1.6 blocks. His 66.9 field goal percentage ranks first in the NBA among active players. 

Information from ESPN's Tim Bontemps was used in this report.

I guess Kyrie is getting the last laugh !

This has been in the works for some time.

My take from this so far is the NY is still the Mecca! Oh....except now it's Brooklyn and not MSG.

Sources: Heat finalizing sign-and-trade for Butler
9:17 PM ET
ESPN

The Miami Heat are finalizing a sign-and-trade with the Philadelphia 76ers to acquire star guard Jimmy Butler, league sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

Miami will send guard Josh Richardson to Philadelphia as part of the deal, sources said.

It has been an eventful two years for Butler. The No. 30 pick in the 2011 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls developed into a three-time All-Star in the Windy City -- only eventually to be traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves and reunited with his former coach, Tom Thibodeau, two summers ago.


Then, after getting Minnesota to its first playoff appearance without Kevin Garnett on the roster, Butler requested a trade last fall. And, after a chaotic few weeks, eventually landed in Philadelphia in exchange for forwards Robert Covington and Dario Saric in November. He was later joined by Tobias Harris, whom the Sixers acquired just before February's trade deadline, to arguably create the NBA's most star-studded lineup.

Butler's time in Philadelphia was rocky but, ultimately, he proved exactly what the Sixers hoped he would be in the playoffs: the kind of closer the team believed it was lacking after a disappointing loss in five games to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals in 2018. Ultimately, though, Philadelphia fell just short of beating the eventual champion Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference semifinals thanks to Kawhi Leonard's insane four-bounce buzzer-beater in Game 7.


Butler, who turns 30 in September, averaged 18.7 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.9 steals in 65 combined games in Minnesota and Philadelphia this past season.

Information from ESPN's Tim Bontemps was used in this report.

AL HORFORD
C, PHILADELPHIA 76ERS

Al Horford has agreed to a four-year, $109 million deal with the 76ers, per ESPN.
The Sixers have re-signed Tobias Harris, lost J.J. Redick and Jimmy Butler, and added Josh Richardson and Horford so far, and now look like a serious contender. The early favorite for the starting unit is Ben Simmons at PG, Richardson at SG, Harris at SF, Horford at PF and Joel Embiid at C. And the fact that Horford can back up Embiid at center is the icing on the cake. Horford was expensive, but hopefully this will help Sixers fans quickly get over losing Jimmy Butler to the Heat.

SOURCE: Adrian Wojnarowski on Twitter
Jun 30, 2019, 9:11 PM ET

Embiid is a superstar but his body demands the team have a very good alternative at center.

Horford is a great piece there.

People are on Kyrie about the Boston situation, but seems to me Horford got out too. No one questions his character.

Then again, Boston might not have wanted that price tag.